


the road to ruin

by epidemiology



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Foster Care, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pre-Canon, i mean. not really but pre-canon for them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epidemiology/pseuds/epidemiology
Summary: Years before they become Batgirl and Red Hood, Cassandra and Jason cross paths.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd
Comments: 3
Kudos: 57





	the road to ruin

**Author's Note:**

> wow it's been a WHILE huh
> 
> so here's the deal: i wrote this in the span of one day after not finishing anything for literally over 3 years. i do not know if it is good or if it makes sense. at this point i just kind of want to post it and not look at it anymore, so here it is
> 
> (title is from alone together by fall out boy bc sometimes that's just how it is)

Jason is bored.

If he's being honest, he's quite a few things other than bored, spanning all the way from angry to terrified to exhausted, but a) Jason's not really big on sharing feelings, and b) he's been sitting here for at least two hours now, and by this point he's not sure he's ever felt anything other than bored in his entire life.

There’s nothing to do except sit here and wait, although what exactly he’s waiting for he’s not entirely sure. He vaguely remembers something being said about a meeting with a social worker tomorrow, to “discuss his options.” It had been hard not to laugh at that, because Jason might be young, but he’s old enough to know very well that he doesn’t have any options. His fate now lies in the hands of the state of New Jersey, which doesn’t exactly fill him with a massive amount of confidence – best case scenario, he spends the next seven years in the system bouncing around shitty foster homes until he ages out; worst case scenario, he ends up in prison like his dad. It’s a depressing prospect, but Jason knows what people say about kids like him, the acidic mix of pity and disgust that laces their voice when they whisper about him from across the room – like Jason doesn’t have two perfectly good ears that can hear exactly what they’re saying.

Whatever. It doesn’t help to dwell on it. Right now his only priority is to stay away from the other kids as much as he can and hope that whatever solution his social worker comes up with doesn’t involve staying in this house overflowing with loud, angry preteens any longer than one night, although to be honest he doesn’t have a whole lot of hope for that either.

Point being, anyway, that Jason is bored.

On the other end of the room where Jason’s been told he’s sleeping for the night, two boys are arguing loudly over something – it seems to be getting fairly intense, but Jason doesn’t really care what it is they’re arguing over, so long as they continue to leave him out of it. Just as the argument reaches a decibel level that his ears are beginning to find uncomfortable, he hears voices from the hall, and, well, it’s not like he has whole lot else to do besides check it out. It might be better not to get involved in whatever it is that’s happening outside, but not getting involved has never really been Jason’s strong suit.

“–found her wandering on the street,” someone is saying as Jason slips out of the room, peeking out from around the corner just enough to see a slight girl standing next to someone Jason presumes is another social worker. “She doesn’t talk – I can’t tell if she doesn’t speak English or she’s deaf or something, but she doesn’t seem to understand anything we say. I know it’s not ideal, but we just need a place for her tonight until we can figure out–”

“Yes, okay, fine,” the woman running the group home – Debra? Denise? – snaps. The social worker gives an audible sigh of relief. Denise, or whatever her name is, crouches down in front of the girl, who watches her impassively.

“Hello,” she says, far too loudly and deliberately. Jason rolls his eyes. “My name is Diane. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The girl just stares at her. Diane lets out a dramatic, put-upon sigh and straightens up, turning back to the social worker. “You’ll come pick her up first thing tomorrow?”

The social worker continues to babble his thanks and assure her that yes, the girl will be gone right away tomorrow morning, but Jason is no longer paying attention to their conversation. The girl, who is clearly not paying attention either, glances around her and takes in her surroundings, her eyes eventually coming to rest on him. There’s something about her gaze that makes him deeply uncomfortable, like she’s staring directly through him, and Jason steps back, unsettled.

It takes him a moment to realize the voices have faded, and when he looks over again, the girl is gone.

+

The girl doesn’t show up again until all the kids have been sent to bed and the house is relatively quiet – save for the incessant snoring of Jason’s roommate, who is apparently as loud in sleep as he is when conscious. After several hours of attempting to block it out with a pillow over his ears, Jason gives up on sleep altogether and sits on the floor by the window with a school library book he’d procured from his bag. It’s snowing out, and he feels the cold seep even deeper into his bones here without the meager protection of the bed, but this is the only spot where there’s enough light to read anything, and if Jason’s going to be up all night he figures might as well get some use out of it.

He doesn’t hear the door creak open. He also doesn’t jump in surprise when he realizes that someone has come into the room, a fact which he is internally very proud of. His body is already beginning to shift into fight or flight mode when the figure steps out of the shadows and Jason realizes that it’s the girl from before.

“What are you doing here?” He whispers.

The girl doesn’t dignify that with a response. Jason’s not really sure what he expected. He sighs, prepared to whisper-yell at her until she gets the hell out of the room and lets Jason freeze to death in peace, but the girl just raises a finger to her lips. When he doesn’t say anything more, she points towards herself, then towards the window, before looking at him pointedly.

“You want to sneak out,” he says, disbelievingly.

The girl raises her eyebrows at him, either unimpressed with his answer or completely unaware of it in the first place. Up close, she looks like she’s about his age – she’s short, looks like she hasn’t been eating enough, and in the dim light from the city outside, he can see a nasty scar near the base of her neck where the collar of her oversized sweater has fallen to the side. Jason finds himself wondering where, exactly, she’d come from.

For a long moment, they just stare at each other.

“Fine, whatever,” he grumbles, standing up and stepping back from the window. So what if she wants to run away and die of hypothermia. He really doesn’t have the energy to worry about some random kid who probably doesn’t understand a word he’s saying anyway. The girl yanks the window open, and Jason winces at the rush of cold air. “You couldn’t have used the front door?” He mutters, wrapping his arms around himself in a futile effort to keep out the chill.

The girl just climbs up onto the windowsill. Her movements are graceful and deliberate – it reminds him, suddenly and illogically, of the flow of water, smooth and unrelenting. She doesn’t react to the bitter wind blowing into the room, even as snowflakes settle on her hair, but she’s only wearing a sweater clearly made for someone much bigger than her and dirty, ripped-up jeans.

She must be cold, Jason thinks.

“Wait,” he says. The girl stops, which is – something. Jason hadn’t really been sure whether she was going to respond at all. He reaches to the side of his bed and digs through his bag until his fingers close around a soft lump of fabric.

“Here.”

The girl tilts her head like she’s confused, staring at the object in Jason’s hand.

“It’s a scarf,” he explains. “It’s for you. To keep you warm.”

That doesn’t get much of a reaction either, though, and Jason is kind of running out of ideas here, so he reaches forward awkwardly, holding the scarf out in front of him. The girl looks at him warily, but doesn’t move, which is encouraging.

After a moment of hesitation, he leans forward and places the scarf around her neck.

For a second, she just stares at him in something like awe, long enough for Jason to start to shiver in earnest from the cold. “Can you please shut the window now?” he mumbles, moving to sit back down, but before he can turn away, a small hand reaches out and grabs his wrist.

She opens her mouth, like she’s trying to say something, but after a moment of internal struggle, she just places her free hand over her heart – where one side of Jason’s scarf now rests – and smiles.

“You’re welcome,” he whispers.

The girl nods, once, and disappears into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> so uh. there you have it i guess? i will probably write another part to this with them in canon era, but i am not 100% sure how that's gonna shake out so for now i'm just gonna leave it at this.
> 
> thank you for reading! :^) i can be found on tumblr [here](http://dobranocgamma.tumblr.com)


End file.
